No sign of Korean blast, says diplomat

The mystery blast in North Korea was not a nuclear explosion, a western envoy said today after he visited the site.

Sweden’s ambassador to the secretive Marxist state said diplomats who visited what North Korean officials claimed was the site of a huge explosion last week saw no evidence to support fears it might have been caused by a nuclear blast.

Diplomats from seven countries were taken to a construction site for a hydroelectric dam where North Korean officials said there were two planned explosions on September 9, Ambassador Paul Beijer said.

“One thing is entirely clear: This was not a nuclear explosion that happened at this site,” Beijer said by phone from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. “This is a site where thousands of people are working on dam building.”

The timing of the explosion on the 56th anniversary of North Korea’s founding had led to speculation that it might be a test by the North’s nuclear programme, but experts said they didn’t believe it was a nuclear test.

British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell said this week that the North’s foreign minister told him during a visit to Pyongyang that the blast was part of demolition work for a hydroelectric project.

Beijer said North Korean officials at the site in the country’s remote north-east told the diplomats the blasts were needed for construction of the dam and explained how much explosive was used.

The delegation was led by British ambassador David Slinn, and also included diplomats from the Pyongyang embassies of Russia, Poland, Mongolia, Germany, Sweden and the Czech Republic.

Some South Korean news reports suggested the group might not have been taken to the source of the blast.

Asked whether he was certain they saw the proper site, Beijer said, “No, but we didn’t have any indication that we were in the wrong place either.”

The diplomats reached the site in Samsu county after a 90 minute flight and then a three-hour drive in 4X4 vehicles, Beijer said.

They spent about 90 minutes taking photos, talking to North Korean officials at the site and gathering information that their governments’ technical experts would analyse, he said.